Fashion Pioneer Ritu Beri expresses her desire to open the Indian doors to luxury brands from various countries and to strengthen the voice of the country”, at the Luxury Symposium 2018 held in New Delhi on November 30.

Ritu Beri Fashion Designer with by Sushma Swaraj, Union Minister of External Affairs, Government of India

Ritu Beri, India Fashion Pioneer and Founder of Luxury League, the not-for-profit Foundation, while speaking at the high profile one-day conference, The Luxury Symposium 2018 held on November 30 at the Hyatt in New Delhi, said: “My desire is to open the Indian doors to luxury brands from various countries and to strengthen the voice of India abroad the idea is to create an increased pool of knowledge and competence.”

Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog

The finely crafted event was replete with a dynamic podium with interactive discussions between stalwarts, world class creative thinkers, international business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and government officials all under one roof.

Vijay Goel, Former Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports

Sushma Swaraj, Union Minister of External Affairs inaugurated the event, which was supported by several Government bodies such as “Make in India” (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion), Union Ministry of Commerce, Tourism, and Indian Council for Cultural Relations. Italy was the country partner of TLS2018and the conference had speakers from various leading luxury brands from both Italy and India.

Bharti Singh

This year, along with the Symposium, there was a grand display-exhibit, THE SHOWCASE, to promote and support the various forms of Indian art, craft and brands such as Rezon, Raj Mahtani, VLCC, Shahnaz Husain, Casa Paradox, and National award winning artisans to name a few.

The objective was to promote ‘BRANDS THAT BRING GLORY TO INDIA‘ and strengthen the voice of India, globally. What is more, the event provided an excellent opportunity for leading Indian brands in cosmetics, furniture, jewellery, cutlery, leather, fabrics etc. to showcase their products and network with potential partners.

Ambassador Lorenzo Angeloni, Ambassador of Italy

Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce and Industries; KJ Alphons, Union Minister of State for Tourism, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi; Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog; Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas; Bibek Debroy Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister; Farooq Abdullah, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and chairman of National Conference; Meenakshi Lekhi, Member of Parliament and Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Cabinet Minister of Food Processing as well as several prominent global personalities, media, decision makers, creative thinkers, corporate heads, important members of the Indian bureaucracy and politicians attended the event.

Rashmi Uday Singh, Indian author and food critic

Sushma Swaraj, in her own inimitable style, spoke of the importance of luxury and its role in branding India. The Union Minister said India had so much luxury in culture, crafts, textiles, and jewellery and with proper branding it could be an important source for economic growth and employment.

Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry

Suresh Prabhu, while endorsing her view, proposed the setting up of a separate vertical in the Ministry to support the promotion of luxury products from India. He urged the Foundation to work with his Ministry to hold an annual global exhibition of luxury brands at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi,Union Minister for Minority Affairs

Mukthar Abbas Naqvi spoke about the idea of involving the conference exhibitors in the next skill development “Hunar Haat” which is a Government initiative to promote handicraft and hand-loom prepared by master artisans from across the country.

KJ Alphons, Union Minister of state for Tourism

KJ Alphons spoke about the importance to promote India’s Heritage Luxury for Branding India Globally, while Vijay Goel gave examples of how Chandni Chowk has been changed to preserve and promote its heritage. He drew attention about his preservation taste of Haveli Dharampura and it receiving the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award for cultural heritage conservation in 2017.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Cabinet Minister of Food Processing in the Government of India and Kalyani Chawla, Fashion Entrepreneur

Participants spoke glowingly about India’s rich luxurious heritage and it’s potential. They believed that the luxury industry plays a significant role in the economic growth of the country. “India’s Luxury industry could be a game changer,” said the MD of Pininfarina, Paolo Pininfarina a view acknowledged by several other speakers.

Meenakshi Lekhi,Member of Parliament

Ritu Beri said she was very encouraged by the support that the Foundation has received from so many government departments in the effort to promote Brand India. Branding India’s excellence is essential the Foundation believes. RITU BERI’S name is synonymous with the explosive globalisation of India’s fashion industry. A pioneer in her field, Ritu was anointed India’s Fashion Queen, two decades ago, when the prima donna stormed the catwalks of Paris with her label, one that fused Indian aesthetics with global fashion trends, just as India began opening its borders to international trade.

Empowered being the protégé of the French embroidery maestro, Francois Lesage, she value-added to that prowess she acquired, with her personal propriety and patent of intellectual and creative capital that she bought to the board-room.

Farooq Abdullah, Former CM of J&K and Chairman of National Conference

It culminated in Time magazine declaring her “THE FIRST LADY OF FASHION IN HER COUNTRY”, Beri being the First Asian to head a French fashion house, Jean Louis Scherrer; and adding to her string of “firsts”, BBC credited her business skills with a resounding headline: “Indian fashion takes a hold in the form of Ritu Beri.”

Luxury League, a Global Foundation established to promote the concept of luxury and to create an environment conducive to creative thinking. A Not-For-Profit Foundation of prominent Luxury brands, world wide.

Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship & Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas

A body that aims at strengthening the influence of India in the Global Luxury industry. One of the main objectives of the Foundation is to redefine Luxury in an Indian context. India qualifies us to use luxury as an art form to reflect all that is authentic and truly unique.

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu yesterday announced the setting up of a fast track, single-window mechanism for Russian companies to be helmed by Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, according to a PIB statement.

Suresh Prabhu Speaking at the India-Russia Business Summit in New Delhi. Photo, PIB.

While addressing the India-Russia Business Summit organised by DIPP, Invest India and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi yesterday, Prabhu said that this mechanism would be in addition to the Russia Desk that had been set up earlier to promote Russian investment in India, noted the statement.

The Minister informed that work on the International North-South Transport Corridor was underway and signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU), soon, will create a huge market which will benefit all the countries of the region and also promote inter-regional partnerships between the states of India and the regions of Russia. Prabhu further said that there existed humongous opportunity for India and Russia to collaborate in all fields such as hydrocarbons, gold and diamond, timber, pharmaceutical, agriculture, power generation, aviation, railways and logistics.

Minister for Economic Development of Russia, Maxim Oreshkin, said that Russia is preparing a strategy to increase economic cooperation with India. He said that Russia is looking at investment protection and avoidance of double taxation agreement with India besides trade in national currencies. Making the economic partnership a strong pillar of bilateral relationship is a key priority for both governments. In December 2014, the leaders of the two countries set a target of USD 30 billion bilateral trade by 2025. This is the largest Russian business delegation to accompany Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on his two-day visit to India, added the report.

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, released a study by the Department of Commerce on India-China Trade. The report tries to analyse the magnitude, extent and plausible reasons of India’s rising trade deficit with China.

Suresh Prabhu releasing a study on India – China Trade. Photo: PIB.

While speaking on the occasion, Prabhu said, “India’s trade relationship with China is unique and no other bilateral trading relationship evokes as much interest in India as the India-China trade relationship. From being a small trading partner of India in 2001, within a span of fifteen years, China has rapidly become India’s biggest trading partner. Trade between the two countries has been expanding but India’s trade deficit with China has been growing. Most industry associations want the Government to pursue a defensive approach to Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and raise tariffs on the doctrine of domestic markets for domestic producers. Protectionist policies are on the rise globally. The global use of protectionist measures in 2018 was unprecedented with the trade wars looming between two of the largest economies of the world.

Hence, a comparative analysis of the concessions ceded by China on 200 products in its Free Trade Agreements to India’s competing countries like Peru, Pakistan, Australia, South Korea and ASEAN has been carried out by the Department of Commerce. Also the imports of China from these countries as well as China’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) rates have been studied. This analysis helps in studying whether an FTA or tariff concessions by China to India (like China has yielded to India’s competing countries in FTA) can be beneficial in increasing India’s exports to China. The idea behind this exercise has been to identify whether tariff concessions by China to other countries impede raising the share of India’s exports in the Chinese market. These lines can be taken up by India for negotiations with China under agreements like Asia Pacific Free Trade Agreement (APTA) in which both India and China are involved during the review exercise.

Study

The study is divided into eight sections beginning with an introduction into the historical aspects of trade relations between India and China and the trends of bilateral trade between the two. It also looks into the trends of trade deficit, and analyses India’s exports and imports to and from China at the HS 6-digit level. It also analyses at HS 6-digit level, China’s share in India’s import basket (extent of dependency on China as a source) and India’s share in China’s export basket.

Stumbling Block

Competing countries who have FTAs with China, limits the scope for Indian exports. This is due to higher tariffs faced by exporters as compared to competing nations who have secured tariff concessions under their FTAs. The top 200 items of China’s imports from India (2017) wherein the tariff advantages available to India’s competing partners in the Chinese market have been analysed.

The study also underlines the opportunity available for India in increasing its services exports to China. Indices like Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) and Trade Complementarity Index (TCI) have been used to analyse the extent of India and China’s competitiveness in this arena and the potential for the future. There is a separate section on the opportunities arising for India out of US – China trade standoff with a detailed analysis of specific tariff lines on which tariffs have been levied by China on the US amidst the ongoing trade war and the potential for India to fill in the gaps left by America in the Chinese market, added the report.

Alphonsomangoes from Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Palghar, Thane and Raigad districts of Maharashtra, is registered as Geographical Indication (GI), as per PIB statement. The Geographical Indication or a GI is an indication used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin. Such a name conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness which is essentially attributable to its origin in that defined geographical locality. Darjeeling Tea, Mahabaleshwar Strawberry, Blue Pottery of Jaipur, Banarasi Sarees and Tirupati Laddus are some of the GIs.

Alphonso Mangoes, Photo: PIB.

Boost in Rural Economy

GI products can benefit the rural economy in remote areas, by supplementing the incomes of artisans, farmers, weavers and craftsmen. Our rural artisans possess unique skills and knowledge of traditional practices and methods, passed down from generation to generation, which need to be protected and promoted.

Recently, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Suresh Prabhu, launched the logo and tagline for the Geographical Indications (GI) of India and said that the GI will give the rightful share in the intellectual property to the artisan and the place of origin of the product. He emphasised that it’s an area of strength and optimism for India, whereby GI tag has given protection to a large number of hand-made and manufactured products, especially in the informal sector.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has taken several initiatives in this regard and is actively involved in promotion and marketing of GIs with a vision to enhance the horizon both socially and economically for GI producers.

History of Hapus

The king of mangoes, Alphonso, better known as ‘Hapus’ in Maharashtra, is in demand in domestic and export markets not only for its taste but also for pleasant fragrance and vibrant colour. It has long been one of the world’s most popular fruit and is exported to various countries including Japan, Korea and Europe. New markets such as the US and Australia have recently opened up, noted the statement and added first product to get a GI tag in India was the Darjeeling tea in 2004. There are a total of 325 products from India that carry this indication.

India has urged the G-20 members to focus on services in order to enhance global trade, according to a PIB statement. The Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu, while addressing the gathering at the G-20 Trade Ministers Meeting (TMM) held at Mar del Plata in Argentina on September 14, 2018, he emphasised the need to focus more on services in order to reap tangible benefits.

The G-20 TMM was represented by Ministers/Vice Ministers of G20 countries, eight guest countries and seven Heads/Deputy Heads of International Organisations such as WTO, ITC, OECD, World Bank, IMF, CAF and IADB. As Argentina is the President of G-20 this year, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, Jorge Faurie and Minister for Production and Labour, Dante Sica jointly chaired the Sessions. The overall objective of the Argentine Presidency of G-20 is ‘Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development’.

The programme of the G-20 TMM included a breakfast meeting to facilitate free exchange of views on the current global trade developments and three plenary sessions on specific topics of the agenda on current international trade developments, trade and investment aspects of Agro Food Global Value Chains (GVCs) and trade and investment aspects of the New Industrial Revolution (NIR), said the statement.

Suresh Prabhu participated in all the sessions including the breakfast meeting. The ministers held a shared view that the global trade and economic situation was at a critical stage due to the ongoing trade tensions, driven largely by protectionist and unilateral measures by some countries and resolved to collectively work towards enhancing confidence in international trade through dialogue and collaborations.

Change the Narrative

Prabhu emphasised that as developing countries and LDCs suffer consequential collateral damage due to trade conflicts, resolution of differences through dialogue between the parties should be promoted. He urged G-20 to change the narrative on trade by focusing on the potential of Services for enhancing the global trade, keeping in view that Services contribute more than 50% to the World GDP. Endorsing India’s commitment to the rule-based multilateral trading system, Suresh Prabhu called for collective action for revitalising WTO without undermining its core principles of special and differential treatment, consensus building, inclusiveness and transparency. Most members recalled the successful WTO Mini Ministerial meeting held in New Delhi in March 2018 as India’s significant contribution to the revitalisation of WTO.

Food Security

The Ministers recognised the importance of Agro Food GVCs for enhancing global food security. Suresh Prabhu underlined the relevance of keeping in focus realisation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 targets relating to removal of hunger, alleviation of poverty, empowerment of women, employment generation, without losing sight of the plight of millions of small and marginal farmers in developing countries and LDCs. He further drew attention to the need for tackling non-tariff barriers in the form of SPS measures that are more trade distorting than tariffs. He urged G-20 to support transfer of technology, research, promote agricultural services and responsible investment in agriculture businesses with an aim to encouraging greater value addition for MSMEs.

Role of Digital Technologies

On the New Industrial Revolution, Ministers acknowledged the central role of digital technologies. Prabhu drew attention to the need for minimising technology disruptions and promoting distributive gains for the collective good of all countries and, in this regard, the Minister urged G-20 to work towards closing gaps in the digital divide within and across nations through capacity building measures, technology adaptation and meaningful investments to give primacy to protection and promotion of domestic entrepreneurs with an aim to job creation for millions of youth. He underlined the need for a holistic approach to the NIR, one that is inclusive and development oriented.

Prabhu held 24 bilateral meetings with his counterpart Ministers and Heads of delegation on the sidelines of the G-20 TMM with whom he exchanged views on ways to reform WTO and strengthen bilateral relations. The G-20 TMM deliberations will feed into the G-20 Leaders Declaration which will be adopted at the G-20 Summit on 30 November – December 1 2018 in Buenos Aires in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to participate.